This is a query , as I would like to know if there are any restrictions on the use of straight jackets within the Police Force in this country.
A friend of mine who lives in Suffolk, has had a breakdown a couple of months ago. She has been put on medication which is changing her whole personality. From a sweet caring person to a demented confused and at times vicious with tongue, person.
Two nights ago, after being friends with me for over 20 yrs she sent a nasty text message, which completely threw me.
It turns out that the same night she hit her mother, although her mother said it was not hard and she had no marks.
Neighbours phoned the police, they arrested her took her to the police station, strip searched her, had her lying flat out on the floor, took ALL her clothes off whilst a couple of WPS giggled, and then put her into a straight jacket.
This person is 60yrs of age, and 5ft.1ins tall. and built like a sparrow.
Is this practice acceptable and legal, because I can't find anything that says it is or it isn't ?
Straitjackets have not been used since the late 1990s they strip you down so you don't harm yourself put you in leg and hand restraints then a police doctor called to see if you need a sedative this is called a code grey
They have to justify a strip search, the only reason they are allowed to perform it is if they have reason to believe something is being concealed, they are not permitted to do it as a routine or random check nor any other pathetic made up excuse.
The strip search should normally be carried out by one person only, if there are safety concerns for the searcher obviously there should be more but NO spectators nor witnesses nor anyone standing by in view unless they are directly involved.
The WPSs giggling is unprofessional and demeaning and worth a complaint in its own right.
You need to clarify if this was a strip search, a strip to redress or an intimate search which are all separate issues.
As edd has said, there are no approved straitjackets for use by UK Police, however they do have belts which are used to restrain arms and or legs (and especially not heads as was abused in one case). A medical professional may be able to specify a straightjacket of some sort but not the police.
I would also be asking the NHS about the suitability of the medication they have provided, if the medication is making a person manic while not under direct care then there is something seriously wrong with the treatment programme.
link this tells you what they can do and what you can do
Granny ,can you be sure your friend is relating the truth? Did someone go with her to the police station who has verified what happened ? I only query it because I had a similar experience with a 50 year old friend of mine , about 10 years ago.
She was a level headed divorced woman who lived with her 73 yr old mum ,so when she rang one evening to tell me she was having trouble with her mum turning nasty on her, hitting her , stealing from her, not feeding the pets, and generally showing signs of dementia, I had no reason to question it .She told me her mum would likely ring me and say my friend was trying to get her sectioned ....and just to humour her kindly.
I got a call the day after from the mum who said her daughter was acting strangely , threatening her, ignoring her pets needs, not eating , and generally speaking as if in a fantasy world. I did as asked by my friend, and offered some kind words.
Long story short , I got a call from a mutual friend a few days later, saying my friend had been found wandering in town in her pyjamas in the rain, in the middle of the day ,and someone had called an ambulance . Turns out she had had some sort of a breakdown ,had become psychotic, and there was nothing wrong with the mum at all .
I believe drugs can change your personality and perception just as much as a 'natural' breakdown can , so was just wondering if your friend is thinking normally as although we know the police dont always play by the rules, claims of a straight jacket sound quite extreme ?
very interesting points made and I thank you all.
I do wonder if she meant 'strip search' as in 'strip search' or if she just meant that all her clothes were removed. This is something I do wonder about, as I do not know any reason WHY this would happen.
I will ask her to clarify, as when she spoke tonight, she was clearly, extremely distressed and had to attend court this morning. She didn't say if she had been charged with anything and I didn't ask, mainly because the whole conversation was becoming too much for her.
This experience is something she has never known before.
I spoke to her mother and she seemed to verify the story as told to myself, before her daughter was arrested.
Apparently there were no places available in the psychiatric wards anywhere.
There was nobody with her and eventually she managed to get a solicitor, whom she said was a nice guy and got her released after hours. She also said that the police twisted everything that she said. That is possible ! However, that's not something anyone would know.
The only other person involved was her daughter, who lives on the South Coast and was communicating by phone to the police.
They were also refusing her medication.
It all seems very dramatic, which it will be to her anyway, but I cannot imagine, if she does not know how the police operate, how she could make up so much in her head.
Doesn't everything in cop shops get videoed now, after the Police And Criminal Evidence act? She should complain and it could be investigated. Mind you, the equipment used is notoriously unreliable, and often it is found that the tapes evaporate or fail to work on just that occasion.
I think under PACE, once the accused is at the station there is only a requirement that interviews are recorded, this may be audio or video but video is preferred.
Hey Granny - agree with Venice, difficult to get to truth - who would know she was "strip search" then put in straight jacket.....
Why would police arrest her - did the mother say she wanted to press charges. Why didn't neighbors call ambulance?
Searches done to make sure they have nothing to harm themselves or the police I would guess - last thing police would want is someone self harming with something that was not picked up in a search- then they get criticised for that!! They can't win either way
Reality is with cuts in funding all over the place this may in the past have been better dealt with in some form of medical-psychiatric unit, but these all gone and now sadly the police often left to deal as best they can....and it is not just on the wirral
http://www.derbytelegraph.co.uk/der...n-cells/story-30232619-detail/story.html
Oldpm01, I do have to consider some of what you and others have said.
That is why I pointed out that she may have got confused about a 'strip search' rather than being 'stripped'. She clearly had been stripped from the account she gave me and she would not have any previous knowledge about what goes on in a police station/cell, so her account seemed to be viable although I do not know the reasons for such actions.
Yes, I am looking at this with possible confusion being part of the account, so I will be in contact with her again (or her mum) and see once the situation has calmed what else might come forth.
However, I still cannot understand why she would give her account of being stripped , when she had not or did not know previously how they are performed. Saying that, I only know from internet search, where it lays out procedures of such . She does not have the internet.
She was a person who was always supportive of the law and our police forces... she has complete hate for them now and called them animals. In her words, " They are worse than animals, because I like animals".
Granny if the police think she will harm herself they will strip her eg if she's got jogging pants on with a cord in same with a hoodie, the police can't let her have her meds without say so from the docs and if she has any marks from self harming they're supposed to look in on her every 10 to 20 minutes this could be by walking up to cell and looking in or Vidor on front desk
As I'm not a woman lol they may of took her bra too if it had wire in it??? I don't know
According to what she told me, they took everything off , including her knickers. That was when she broke down again, saying "even my knickers" !
Try not to upset yourself too much granny till you're sure about the truth of it --youve already said that the medication has changed her personality , so not far to believing her brain was translating her fears about what might happen in custody, into 'reality'
Thanks Venice. I have not been able to contact her. Sent messages, phoned, but no response. Yesterday,I spoke to her mum , who is in fact 91yrs of age, and she was clearly distraught, saying her daughters personality has changed but she had been to Dr.'s and told medication to be reduced gradually.
Her mum said that daughter on bad days just rants, to which she (the mum) doesn't respond , but then she's accused of being a zombie, so she can't win and there is no help from anyone for either of them other than a psychiatrists appointment each week for the daughter.
Well, we know what that means. 10 mins of the same questions that were answered last week, and a load of tick boxes.... Keep taking the pills ! So no help at all. Those medications are lethal too and can have such dreadful side effects.
The difficulty is, that although personality can change, we cannot and should not assume that the person who is ill is telling lies or hallucinating in such matters. If we do that, then how many more could be abused or cruelly treated when their pleas fall on deaf ears ?
So difficult.